


It Takes Two to Tangrow

by AmeliaAwan, luxnyx



Category: Original Work
Genre: Agender Character, Aromantic, Asexuality, Ashtime, Bigender, Bisexuality, Developing Friendships, Feel-good, Fluff, Homophobia, Multi, Other, Platonic Life Partners, Platonic Relationships, Polyamory, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmeliaAwan/pseuds/AmeliaAwan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxnyx/pseuds/luxnyx
Summary: A bigender polyamorous bisexual with problems being accepted for her identity and an agender aromantic asexual with problems being accepted for their interests become roommates, and after a rocky start help each other push past their insecurities and grow.
Relationships: Friendship - Relationship, OC/OC
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	It Takes Two to Tangrow

**Author's Note:**

> Authour's Note: This chapter contains non-graphic mentions of scars and a mild slur.

As Chris drove into the city on her motorbike, her luggage behind her on a trailer, a million thoughts were racing through her mind. Not what would come of her career as a bicycle engineer--that was the one thing she was sure of. She'd been hired by a medium-sized business and she was doing her degree, she couldn't be happier. Oh no. She was thinking about all the people she'd meet. She was eager to meet lots of new people, make some friends, and possibly start dating too - although she'd never been in a relationship before. She'd been in a few relationships in secondary school, but they only ever lasted for a couple of weeks. This was usually because she'd notice someone else rather quickly and then get dumped for "cheating". That was the thing about Chris - her mind very quickly jumped from one thing to another, often hopping back and forth off two things at once. Her relationships became almost non-existent a few years ago when she publicly came out as polyamourous.

But now that life is behind her, and she needed a fresh start more than anything. And where better to start a fresh life than with a fresh person?

As she reached the city, she decided to try and meet some new people at a Starbucks before she checked in to her apartment. Once she ordered a frappuccino with 2 pumps caramel and 2 pumps of raspberries, she caught sight of someone sitting alone at a table, drinking what seemed to be a very dark americano. The person had short, very shiny mint green hair, smooth dark skin, and was wearing loose trousers. Take 1, she thought.  
“Hi,” she said, sashaying over. She pulled up a chair next to them. “So, what’s your name?”  
The person looked kind of taken aback. “Ash. And before you ask, no I do not have a gender. I lost it on my way to Starbucks”  
“I’m Chris, and whatever gender you are, can I just say, you are a dream.” Chris made eye contact and winked.  
Ash cocked an eyebrow. “What are you on about?”  
Chris tried again. “What, you’ve never seen anyone call you pretty before?”  
Ash stared at her with a confused expression before the message Chris was trying to give suddenly dawned on them. “Oh,” they gasped. “Look, I’m flattered, but I’m aromantic. Don’t get me wrong, you’re pretty, but I really don’t do that sort of thing. I’m just here because they’re doing special offers on coffee that’s darker than I can get anywhere else.”.  
Chris’s face fell, although she tried to conceal it. “Oh my God, I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to invade your privacy!” And she walked off, taking slow sips of her frapp, telling herself that it was just bad luck that they just happened to be aromantic and asexual. There are plenty of other people here, she thought. I’ll probably never even see them again.

***

“Hi again,” said Ash nonchalantly.  
Chris was shocked. The first person who she met in the city she now lives in just happened to be her roommate! She was in a relatively good mood up until that point too, feeling satisfied after getting the number of 3 separate individuals only to realise that she, a polyamorous bi, will now be spending the next few years with the first person who rejected her.  
“Oh, it’s you,” said Chris, still very stunned. “I mean, it’s not a bad thing that it’s you, you’re a good person, it’s just… Where’s my room?” Chris was very subtly trying to make this less awkward.  
“It’s the one to the left.” Ash pointed to one of the doors opposite Chris. They then looked over Chris’s shoulder at the two large suitcases that she had brought. “That looks like a lot. Do you want me to help you unpack?”  
Chris stopped. Don’t make more interaction than needs be for the time being, she thought. There’s no point making yourself look even worse.  
“Yes please!”  
Idiot! She scolded.

“You don’t need to worry about what happened earlier by the way,” said Ash, folding Chris’s shirts for her. “A lot of people ask me out before I tell them. I’m used to it.”  
“Oh good,” said Chris, not feeling good in the slightest. “Honestly I’m not surprised. You are really pretty.”  
“Thank you,” said Ash, with a slight smile. This person is definitely somehow being sincere, they thought. They didn’t know how they knew this--literally the first thing she did when she met them was ask them out, how sincere can a one-night-stand person really be--but somehow they knew she was being genuinely really nice.  
“So why did you move here?” asked Ash. They thought a bit of small talk might make their new roommate a bit less embarrassed.  
“Oh, I’m studying mechanical engineering at uni. I’m hoping to use my degree to make bikes one day.”  
“Bikes?”  
“Yeah, I’ve been fixing them in my family workshop for a while, and I guess that caused it.” Chris smiled. “I like bikes.”  
Ash could see this was making her feel better, so they decided to keep her talking about it. “So Chris, what’s your favourite type of bike, and why?”  
Chris’s face lit up. “Probably mountain bikes. I’m the type of person that likes a challenge, and mountain bikes give that to me. The wheels are really hard to clean, and even harder to mould, because they have to hold loads of friction to ride up mountains. That’s the whole thing; the bike fails if it can’t ride mountains, oh and the brake system is also really complex...”  
Ash couldn’t understand much of what Chris was saying, but the bits they could understand they found fascinating, and they could tell that she put a lot of thought into their opinion, and they liked that. “I can tell you’re really passionate about this.”  
Chris stopped. “Do you want me to stop? I know, I ramble… Should we talk about something else?”  
“No, the stuff you’re saying sounds really cool!”  
“You think so?” Chris beamed.  
“Yes! I really don’t know much about bikes, but from what you’ve told me it sounds really interesting! Could you tell me more?”  
“Of course! Hey, once I actually get a workshop, you can come and have a look at how it’s done.”

Ash nodded. “I’d really like that.”

They continued unpacking. Ash found a photo in a suitcase featuring a young, dirty Chris in front of a bike.  
Chris saw Ash looking at the photo and walked over to them. “That’s me when I was 13. Ugh, that hair… what was I thinking? And that,” she pointed to the bike “was the first working bike I ever made. I had some help, of course, but I was still very proud.”  
“How long did that take you?” asked Ash.  
“2 months, with one of those months taken up by fixing all the mistakes.” Chris smiled, reminiscing. “The brakes didn’t work at one point. Guess how I found out.”  
Chris showed Ash a faint scar on her hip. Ash winced.  
“Ouch,” they said with a slight laugh. “That must have taken a while to recover from.”  
“It literally gave me stitches! That bike,” Chris gently hit the photo in mock anger. “Is directly responsible for giving me trust issues.”  
Ash laughed. “So have you kept the bike?”  
“Yes, only I don’t use it anymore,” said Chris. “It had a lot of faults and I’ve made better bikes since, but I have to keep it because it’s the first one I ever made and I wouldn’t be the stage I am at the moment without it.”  
“That’s really special,” smiled Ash, happy to have made Chris a bit more comfortable.

Once they had finished packing, Chris sat on her bed, flicking through the 3 new contacts she had gotten on her phone earlier today.  
“Did you meet anyone else at that coffee shop?” said Ash, sitting next to her.  
“Yeah, I met a few.”  
“Are you going to call them?”  
“I’m not sure. I’m kind of tired to be honest.”  
“That’s fine,” assured Ash. “I’ll just make dinner for us then, if you’re ok with that.”  
Ash walked into the kitchen and opened up a couple of bags of couscous, and some canned vegetables. As Chris followed them, she noticed a guitar next to the sofa. “You play guitar?” she asked.  
“Yeah, I’m in a band,” said Ash, throwing some spices into the pot of couscous they had cooking on the stove. “It’s kind of my thing, you know? I’ve been playing guitar for quite a while, kind of like you with bikes.”  
“That’s so cool!” gushed Chris.  
Ash’s eyebrows creased. “If only other people thought so.”  
“Oh?” frowned Chris. “Do people not like it?”  
“Some people think music isn’t essential. Even my family--not that they weren’t understanding, just that none of them are musicians, so it’s kinda been hard to progress. Can you relate? I mean, obviously you had an engineering family so…”)  
Chris looked back on her life. She thought about how many people had refused to go out with her because she “wasn’t a full gender” or a “slut”, and how although her friends were supportive, they never truly understood. “Yeah,” she sighed. “I know exactly how you feel.”  
Ash smiled, pleased to receive some validation.  
Chris scrolled through her contacts once more. I really should rest, she thought, then stopped and looked at her phone again. Oh, but why did they have to be so hot?!  
She turned to look at Ash, who was tying their green, messy hair back with a headband. She thought about how nice and welcoming they had been to her, even after a humiliating start. You know what? Screw it. You find hot people every day.  
“Ash?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I was just wondering, do you have good taste in films?”  
Ash smirked as they walked over to a pile of DVDs they had next to their TV. “I have excellent taste in films. Here, you can choose one.”  
As Chris looked through the films to find one she liked, she stopped for a few minutes, just to take everything in. After a very hard couple of years, she had finally found a friend in the first person she met (who, by the smell of it, was also a very good cook) even though they had met under much worse circumstances than any of her friends from secondary.  
Maybe this is a sign, she thought. Things are finally looking up.

**Author's Note:**

> Authour's Note: Thank you for reading this chapter. We'd both really appreciate it if you gave feedback on this thing we created.


End file.
